Introduction to Stocks & Investing

Explore the basics of stocks and mutual funds, explain equity and ownership, and learn risk-aware investing strategies with stock screening, analysis, and common stock rights.

Explain what a stock is as a portion of company ownership raised through shares. Explore stock exchanges and brokers, and why diversified portfolios benefit from capital gains and tax efficiency.

Identify the two main stock types—common and preferred—and explain voting rights, ownership, and dividends, then classify markets into large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap.

Discover the classification of common stock, including blue chip, growth, value, income, cyclical, and defensive stocks, with examples and how they relate to company size, dividends, and market sensitivity.

Explain how beta measures a stock's market sensitivity and how a portfolio's weighted beta reflects overall risk, emphasizing diversification, leverage cautions, and cost considerations.

Explore how to list key stock screening criteria, including dividends, exchange, 52-week price change, sector, price-to-earnings ratio, daily volume, market cap, and stock splits and reverse splits.

Explore the types of stock analysis, including fundamental analysis, cash flow analysis, and technical analysis, and understand how future earnings, discounted cash flows, and supply-demand dynamics shape stock valuations.

Explain the ratios for valuing firms, such as price to earnings, price to book, return on equity, and dividend payout ratio, and outline order types and broker options.

Explore criteria for choosing a broker, including a robust trading platform, insured and compliant accounts, transparent commissions, available services, daily updates, a relationship manager, and cash interest.

Explore common stock investing strategies, including buy and hold, dollar cost averaging, and dividend reinvestment. See how these approaches reduce taxes and fees while avoiding market timing.

Explain the five steps of a typical stock transaction, from placing a buy or sell order to the transfer of stocks and money, highlighting brokers, specialists, and market makers.

Learn how to read stock quotations, including symbols, per-share price, 52-week high/low, dividends, dividend yield, and P/E ratio to evaluate stock performance.

Calculate the price-earnings ratio from stock price per share and earnings per share, then analyze historical and forward measures to gauge valuation and earnings prospects.

Explore key stock and investment terms, from common stock, preferred stock, dividends, and voting rights to capital gains, yield concepts, and market indicators like volatility and beta.

Explore the rights of a stockholder: voting rights, limited liability, stock splits, pre-emptive rights, and dividends, along with key market terms like bulls and bears.

Explore major investment options from bonds and stocks to options, futures, forex, commodities, real estate, and mutual funds, and learn their pros, cons, and fit for your needs.